Improvement in extensible furniture



Patented Dec. 5, 187i1 UNITED STATES PATENT OEEICE.

JOSEPH MASON DENNIS, OF GALESBURG, ILLINOIS.

IMPROVEMENT IN EXTENSIBLE FURNITURE.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 121,596, dated December 5, 1871; antedated November 24, 1871.

To all whom t may concern."

Be it known that I, J oSErE MASON DENNIS, of Galesburg, in the county of Knox and State of Illinois, have invented a new Article of Furniture or Manufacture, of which the iollowing is a specification:

The nature of my invention consists in the application of the system of leverage called lazytongs to the ends or edge of boards or sheets of wood or of other material (or to frames, in which the same may be mounted) in such a manner that, by the operation of said principle or system of leverage, the boards or substitutes therefor may be folded together or distended apart and made to assume such positions as are suited to the various purposes for which they are to be used; the object ofthe invention being to furnish a new and useful article of furniture that may be used for various purposes, such as a desk or stand with shelving for writing materials, sheet-music, magazines, newspapers, books, paintings, drawings, &c.; also as a portable system of steps and seats.

Figure l is an oblique or side View of my invention, in the elevation of which the boards are intended to remain in ahorizontal position. Fig. 2 is the saine, wherein the boards take the position or place of each alternate lever in the system of leverage applied. Figs. 3 and 4C are, respectively, views of the same folded, showing the principle of operation.

a a. are the levers, which are made of equal length, and which have holes in them equally alike and distant from each other. Through these holes pass the screws or bolts oc c, which connect the levers together and to the boards b b b or to the frames e e, in which said boards or sheets ot' wood or other material may be mounted. In Fig. l the two side pieces of each frame have in them slots running from the ends toward each other, in which place play the bolts or screws c c, the four upper oil which have thumb-nuts by which the ends of the levers a a are, or may be, firmly fixed to the frame e e at any point within the compass of the slots, thus sustaining the boards at any desired height. d d are supports by which the same object is accomplished. In Fig. 2 the boards take the position or place of each alternate lever, or each such lever may form a part of the frame in which the boards or substitutes therefor are incased.

I do not claim the combination of the aforesaid systems of leverage with transverse bars or slats as a clothes-drier.

I claim as my invention- 1. The combination of the levers a and the boards or sheets b, as and for the purpose specied.

2. The combination, with the levers a and the boards or sheets b, of the frames e, substantially as and for the purpose specied.

JOSEPH MASON DENNIS.

Witnesses:

SAME. N. GRosE, CHARLES STYER. 

